'Revenant' leads Oscar noms with 12, only white actors again

Jake Coyle

This photo provided by courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox shows, Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass, in a scene from the film, "The Revenant," directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. The 88th annual Academy Awards nominations were announced Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif. The Oscars will be presented on Feb. 28, 2016, in Los Angeles.

Image Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox via AP

January 14, 2016 - 9:30 AM

NEW YORK, N.Y. - The brutal frontier saga "The Revenant" landed a leading 12 nominations for the 88th annual Academy Awards, while the acting categories were again filled entirely by white performers.

The strong showing Thursday for "The Revenant," including a best actor nod for Leonardo DiCaprio and best supporting actor for Tom Hardy, follows its win at the Golden Globes. It sets up director Alejandro Inarritu for a possible back-to-back win following his sweep for best picture, director and screenplay for "Birdman" last year.

"We gave it our all on this film and this appreciation from the Academy means a lot to me and my colleagues who made it possible," said Inarritu in a statement. "Champagne and mezcal will run tonight!"

George Miller's post-apocalyptic sequel "Mad Max: Fury Road" followed with 10 nominations, including best picture and best director for Miller. Ridley Scott's sci-fi epic "The Martian" landed seven nominations, including best picture and best actor for Matt Damon, but, surprisingly, no best director nod for Scott.

Left on the outside were Todd Haynes' lesbian romance "Carol" (which fared better in acting nominations for Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara) and the N.W.A biopic "Straight Outta Compton" (which still landed a nod for original screenplay). The miss for "Carol" meant one usual Oscar heavyweight — Harvey Weinstein — won't have a horse in the best picture race for the first time since 2007.

The acting nominees, which notably omitted Idris Elba for "Beasts of No Nation" and Benicio Del Toro for "Sicario," gave the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences an awkward repeat of the "OscarsSoWhite" backlash that followed last year's acting nominees.

Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has since redoubled efforts to diversify the academy's membership, and slated Chris Rock — who a year ago labeled Hollywood a "white industry" — to host this year's Feb. 28 ceremony.

"I really was disappointed," said Isaacs after nominations were announced. "What is important is that this entire conversation of diversity is here and that we are talking about it, and I think we will not just talk because people will say, 'Well don't just talk, you gotta do,' (but) talking gets to the doing, and we are going to do."

In a statement, DiCaprio, who's expected to land his first Oscar in his fifth nomination, called making "The Revenent" ''one of the most rewarding and collaborative experiences of my life."

The best actress field is led by favourite Brie Larson for "Room," along with Jennifer Lawrence (for "Joy," making her, at 25, the youngest four-time nominee), Cate Blanchett (her seventh nod, for "Carol"), Saoirse Ronan ("Brooklyn") and Charlotte Rampling ("45 Years").

After seemingly slipping in an unpredictable awards season, "Spotlight" showed particularly strength Thursday, landing six nominations including best director for McCarthy, best screenplay for McCarthy and Josh Singer, best supporting actress for Rachel McAdams and best supporting actor for Mark Ruffalo.

Sylvester Stallone, reprising his role as Rocky Balboa in "Creed," looms large in the supporting actor category. His stiffest competition is seen as Mark Rylance, best known for his legendary stage work, for "Bridge of Spies." Also nominated were Tom Hardy ("The Revenant") and Christian Bale ("The Big Short").

"I am incredibly humbled by this honour," Stallone, first nominated for the role in 1976 for "Rocky," wrote in an email. "I was not expecting it ... especially at this time in my life. I am certainly grateful to the artists and collaborators who helped make it possible."

Stallone was the only nominee for Ryan Coogler's "Creed," which drew raves for its director and star, Michael B. Jordan.

Nominees for best director shunned not just one filmmaking legend in Scott, but also Spielberg. Instead, Lenny Abrahamson for "Room" was the unexpected addition along with Adam McKay, known best for his broader Will Ferrell comedies, for "The Big Short."

As expected, Pixar's "Inside Out" landed a best animated feature nod, as did the Charlie Kaufman-penned "Anomalisa," ''Shaun the Sheep Movie," ''Boy and the World" and "When Marnie Was There."

The nomination for Pixar (which also landed a best screenplay nod for "Inside Out") restores its nearly unblemished record of Oscar nominations, broken only by 2011's "Cars 2" and 2013's "Monsters University."

Though some fans had hoped for a better showing, the box-office behemoth "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" failed to land a best picture nomination. It instead scored five technical nods for editing, score, visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing.

Since the best picture field was expanded from five nominees to up to 10, in 2010, every year has delivered nine nominations until this year's eight. The original reasoning was partly to make room for bigger, more populist films like Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" alongside acclaimed independent releases.

But the chances for "The Force Awakens" were hurt because the category already has one sci-fi blockbuster ("The Martian"), as well as a number of major studio releases. 20th Century Fox had an especially good day, led by "The Revenant" and "The Martian."

Netflix, which has previously scored nominations for documentaries, fell short in its first bid for fiction film nods. Its first original feature, Cary Fukunaga's West African child war film "Beasts of No Nation," was shut out.

Netflix did, however, again break into the documentary category with "What Happened, Miss Simone" and "Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom." The other nominees were "Amy," ''Cartel Land" and "The Look of Silence." Surprisingly left out was Alex Gibney's incendiary Scientology documentary, "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief."

Nominations were announced shortly after the passing of Alan Rickman, famed for "Die Hard" and "Harry Potter" but never Oscar-nominated, at 69.

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